10 months ago
Practice makes perfect, and it took about a year and a half for Fred Robinson to get his hands back in tune with his guitar after a stroke.
"When I first tried to play when I came back from the hospital I couldn't do it," he says he knew what to do in his head, but his fingers didn't pick up the rhythm as quickly as he'd hoped.
"It's like a person that breaks a leg, I had to rehab to where I needed to be," he said.
Robinson started playing the piano and guitar at 6-years-old. Since then he has played behind entertainers like Ray Charles, Tina Turner, and B. B. King, but getting back up on the stage after his stroke took some time. He said he would sit and play until he got his fingers to where they needed to be.
"A little old voice came to me and said Fred, you're the same person that you used to be," he said, but others weren't convinced. Robinson says nobody wanted to give him a chance after his stroke and some told him to quit and leave music to others.
But, advice from friend and mentor Eddie Kirkland, who has played behind Otis Redding among others, helped Robinson bring his passion back into focus.
"You play a rock-and-roll number, a funky number, that's making you forget about the bad luck you had and have a good time the blues gives you all of those things," said Kirkland.
"Eddie Kirkland told me, he said man I've had stokes. I had a stroke in the hospital. I was on the operating table and he said it makes no difference how things get hard with your life. Don't you quit," said Robinson of Kirkland's encouragement.
"I'm keeping God in my mind and I know I'll overcome and I did," said Robinson.
That attitude led him to take his music into his own hands and collaborate with Kirkland and other friends to drum up a new act. The men spent the last few weeks rehearsing song after song and Robinson can't wait to perform for the people who will fill the seats.
"They say I can't tell you had a stroke, you do it better than you did before you got sick," said Robinson laughing, of his skill, and after working to make his big comeback words like that come as music to his ears.
Robinson will make his return to the stage with Kirkland Sunday night at 7. The group will perform at Tara's Tavern off Emery Highway.
